google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesay, August 26, 2015, David Poole

Advertisements

Aug 26, 2015

Wednesay, August 26, 2015, David Poole

Theme: Are we having fun yet?  Here we have in-the-language phrases that otherwise have nothing in common reimagined as descriptions of showing disrespect to a variety of otherwise innocent objects. For some reason, being made fun of is never fun.  Go figure.

17. Make fun of boxing gear? : KID GLOVES.  These are GLOVES made from the soft, supple skin of young goats.   Handling something with KID GLOVES means giving it very gentle treatment.  To KID can mean a variety of things from mock and tease playfully to deceive. Be careful if you do that to boxing GLOVES.

25. Make fun of Harleys? : RIDE BIKES.  Harleys are popular American-made motorcycles with many riders.  To RIDE is to ridicule or harass with carping criticism, a bit harsh for "make fun of."

38. Make fun of sweater styles? : MOCK TURTLE NECKS.  These are articles of clothing made with a collar folded over to form a tube, with both edges of the tube fastened to the garment at the neck line.  One can make fun of real TURTLE NECKS, where the tube is twice as long, folded over, and only fastened at one end of the tube.



50. Make fun of tunes? : PUT ON AIRS.  This phrase means to act in a haughty manner, pretending to be superior.  In a different sense, AIRS are songs, and one could make fun of them.  But to "put on" means to deceive or mislead, for amusement or to make someone or something look better than it is.

62. Make fun of Porky and Petunia? : ROAST PIGS.   To roast someone is to hold an event with that person is guest of honor; and a series of speakers subject him or her to [ostensibly] good natured ridicule.  To ROAST a PIG is to cook the entire animal over an open fire

Hi gang, JazzBumpa reporting for duty.   This is a fun-making theme, but a bit loosey-goosey in terms of exact correspondence to the verb in the clue.   Well, I'm not going to make fun of it.  Let's see what other fun is in store.

Across


1. Moments, briefly : SECS.  Not brief moments of DF, though those can be fun, but SECondS, briefly.

5. God with a bow : AMOR.  AKA Eros, AKA Cupid.  Could inspire a brief moment of DF.

9. Like some elephants : ASIAN.   They are smaller, less wrinkled, and more hump-backed than their African counterparts, with different anatomical features in the head and face.

14. Jai __ : ALAI.   Popular X-word puzzle game, played in a closed space using a ball and large, curved wicker baskets.

15. "Game over," to Kasparov : MATE.  The end of a chess game, when the losing king cannot escape.   Garry Kasparov (b 1963) is a Russian former world chess champion and political activist.

16. Forrest's shrimp-loving friend : BUBBA.   From the movie Forrest Gump.

19. Lusitania sinker : U-BOAT.  The Lusitania, launched in 1906, was the world's largest passenger ship.  It was torpedoed and sunk on May 7, 1915, six days out of New York, bound for Liverpool, killing 1198 passengers.  It was 11 miles off the coast of Ireland in a German-declared war zone, and sunk in 18 minutes.  This event was influential [a straw, if you will.  Vide infra - see 61 A.] in bringing the U.S into the war two years later.

20. StyleBistro and Slate : E-ZINES.  Electronic magaZINES.

21. "Into the Woods" (2014) director Marshall : ROB.   He is a stage and screen director and choreographer, who won several awards for directing "Chicago" in 2002.  "Into the Woods" involves an original story of the baker and his wife, which is used to tie together several otherwise unrelated fairy tales.  Also last Wednesday's theme clip.  Am I in a rut?


23. Schlep : TOTE.   v.  To haul or carry a burdensome load.  That's no fun at all.

24. Arles article : LES.  "The" in French

27. "Gigi" novelist : COLETTE.   Also French.   Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954) was a novelist, journalist, actress and mime.

30. Barcelona-born muralist : SERT.   Josep Maria Sert i Badia (21 December 1874 – 27 November 1945)


31. MouthHealthy.org org. : A D A.   American Dental Association.

32. Line from the sun : RAY.  Beam doesn't fit.

34. Ristorante desserts : GELATI.   Italian ice creams.

42. Came afterward : ENSUED.

43. Roller in Vegas : DIE.  Spotted cubic gambling device.

44. Low digit : TOE.  I wanted "TWO."

45. Lively dance : REEL.  For real!


47. Adopt, as a cause : ESPOUSE.   Does anyone here ESPOUSE polygamy?

54. Ga. neighbor : ALAbama.  

55. Numbered musical piece : OPUS.


or perhaps



56. Colorado native : UTE.  Native American.

57. Human rights advocate Sakharov : ANDREI.  (May 21, 1921 – December 14, 1989)  Russian nuclear physicist, and later dissident and human rights activist, earning him state persecution and a Nobel peace Prize.   The Sakharov prize, awarded annually by the European Union for dedication to human rights and freedom is named in his honor.

60. "¿Cómo __?" : ESTAS.   Spanish "How are [you?]"

64. Requests for Friskies, maybe : MEOWS.   Cat food brand.

65. Half of zwei : EINS.   From 2 to 1 - a German division.

66. Rules, to GIs : REGS.  REGulations.

67. Proverbial reason for a break? : STRAW.   Only if it's the last one on the camel's back.



68. Schedule opening : SLOT.   An open space between occupied spaces, figuratively or literally, from Old French esclot, the space between the breasts.

69. Bone, in Rome : OSSO.   Modern Rome, not ancient, but derived from the Latin ossum.  Also Monday's 39 D.   Is it time to bone up on my Italian?

Down



1. Benefit : SAKE.   Often for Pete, though I don't know why.

2. 16th/17th-century Eng. queen : ELIZ.  ELIZabeth.   Looks like an odd Abrv.



3. Eldorados, e.g. : CADILLACS.  Automobiles.

4. One of the Declaration of Independence's 56 : SIGNEE.   One who signs on, not someone who gets signed on. 

5. "Famous" cookie guy : AMOS.   Wally AMOS learned cookie baking from his aunt.  Later in life, as a talent agent with the William Morris agency, he would often send cookies to celebrities he wanted to woo.  In 1975 he left it all behind and became a cookie entrepreneur.

6. Big D cager : MAV.   Dallas MAVerick professional basketball player.

7. "SNL" alumna Cheri : OTERI.   (b 1962) This frequent crossword gal was on SNL from 1995 to 2000.

8. Patches, as a lawn : RESODS.  I wanted RESEEDS, but that has to many letters.

9. __ Dhabi : ABU.  Middle East country.

10. Foreign film feature : SUB-TITLE.   English translation of foreign-language dialog. printed near the bottom of the screen  Not sure what it has to do with titles.

11. Discontinued Apple laptop : I-BOOK.  Sold from 1999 to 2006.

12. Let up : ABATE.

13. Archibald and Thurmond of the NBA : NATES.  Archibald played on several teams from 1970 to 1984.  Thurmond played with 3 teams from 1963 to 1977

18. For fear that : LEST.  This word comes to us from Old English, via Middle English. I have no idea how LEST - which literally means "The less that" got transmogrified into "For fear that" - but that is commonly how it is defined.  We don't do A, lest B happen.  It is a preventive, and fear has nothing to do with it.  /rant.

From Dictionary.com:   "before 1000; Middle English leste, contraction of the lesse the, thi les the; late Old English the lǣste, earlier thȳ lǣs the, literally, whereby less that ( thȳ instrumental case of the demonstrative and relative pronoun, lǣs less, the relative particle.)

22. "Saturday Night Fever" group : BEE GEES.


25. Raise : REAR.  Take care of and support until mature.  Also, a horse REARS by raising up on its hind legs, but I can't find a connection between these meanings.

26. Machine gun partly named for the Czech city in which it was designed : BREN.  First designed and manufactured in Brno, Moravia, this gun was popular with the British armed forces from the 30's through 1992.

27. Showed up : CAME.  Arrived at an event.

28. Take too much of, for short : O.D. ON.  Over-dose, figuratively, as on chips, in yesterdays 39 A.  

29. "Doonesbury" creator : TRUDEAU.  Garry, purveyor of a classic politically oriented newspaper cartoon.

33. Pay stub abbr. : YTD.  Year To Date.

35. Insurance risk assessors : ACTUARIES.   They use mathematics, statistics and financial theory to study uncertain future events, especially those of concern to insurance and pension programs.

36. Ring stats : TKOS.  Technical Knock Outs.  These occur in boxing matches when it is determined that the match can not safely continue.

37. "Understood" : I SEE.   Got it.

39. "Rashomon" director : KUROSAWA.  Akira KUROSAWA (1910-1998) was a highly influential film maker who directed 30 films over his 57 year career.  Rashomon is a 1950 Japanese movie which uses the plot device of having several characters provide contradictory versions of the same incident.  It won several awards and is considered on of the greatest films of all time.

40. Many a "Divergent" reader : TEEN.  "Divergent" is a trilogy of dystopian young adult novels set in post-apocalyptic Chicago.

41. "It's all false!" : LIES.  Accusation of mendacity.

46. Petrol measures : LITRES.  British spelling of metric units for automobile fuel.

48. Huff and puff : PANT.  Should be huff OR puff.  Together, they are a pair of pants.

49. One who knows the ropes : OLD PRO.  Way back when I was young, an OLD PRO told me that youth and skill were no match for old age and treachery.

50. Sonnets, say : POEMS.   A literary form using meter, rhyme, imagery and other devices to evoke meaning beyond what is in the mere words.

51. Unexpected victory : UPSET.  So called because the favored team is toppled, thus UPSETing the natural order of things, or alternatively because of the way they feel about it.

52. Sylvan Learning employee : TUTOR.   Franchised and corporate supplemental learning centers that provide personalized learning programs for primary and secondary education students.

53. Work on, as a stubborn squeak : RE-OIL.   When one OILing simply isn't enough.

57. No. 2 : ASST.  ASSistanT.  

58. Frittata ingredients : EGGS.  An Italian dish similar to an omelet or crustless quiche, incorprating a variety of other ingredients such as meat and cheese.

59. "That __ last week!" : IS SO.  This awkward partial belongs in an assessment that something ephemeral has become quickly outdated.  

61. Sacramento-to-San Jose dir. : SSW. South-SouthWest

This is so 1968


63. 365 días : ANO.  Years in Spain, sadly lacking the tilde.

Well, we had some retro music, an eggy treat, a frozen confection, and I got to carp a little bit.  That's about as much fun as I can handle in one day.  Hope you don't MOCK me for it.

Cool regards!

JzB


Note from C.C.:

Happy Birthday to dear Montana, who's been through so much the past year. My heart aches whenever I think of the hard time when she had to sell her late son's house and took care of other unfinished business.  She's an extraordinary courageous mom and grandma. 


 Montana and her 5 children celebrated her birthday last year  in Vail, CO

36 comments:

OwenKL said...

FIW. ⋐(❞∩❞)⋑ No ta-da, so I assumed my wag at the natick BREN+SERT was wrong, though I was also unsure about AMOR and ASeT. Even though my German is non-existent, I was still confident of EINe. Wouldn't EINS be halves of zwei, not just one?
Fun theme, and no worries about the reveal being revealed too soon!
Jazz: ESPOUSE.

Would I KID you, tell you LIES?
MOCK the AMOUR in your eyes?
PUT you ON, or let you down,
Make you look the silly clown?
No, Rover, this time the tennis ball flies!

He said he'd RIDE her like a BIKE,
Make her do whate'er he liked,
Make her hop
Or make her drop --
His new skateboard is really nice!

Limericks are POEMS with a pattern pure,
A rhyme scheme of A-A B-B-A is sure.
It's tradition's dictate
That it can't deviate --
Boy, am I glad this isn't a limerick!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all (and Happy Birthday, Montana)!

No major speed bumps for me today, although I thought the theme -- while fun -- was a bit awkward. KID GLOVES, MOCK TURTLENECKS and ROAST PIGS are all noun phrases where the first word is re-imagined as a verb with much hilarity ensuing. But then RIDE BIKES and PUT ON AIRS are verbal phrases where the initial word (or words, in the case of PUT ON) is re-imagined to have a different meaning? I dunno, I just think it would have been better had the theme been more consistent.

There were some minor dips in the road today. I went with GELATO before GELATI, for example, as well as SIGNER before SIGNEE. I also needed some perp help to spell KUROSAWA correctly. But that was about it.

Lemonade714 said...

Montana is also a very fun person who went out of her way to meet when we were both in Denver. HBDTY and many more.

Mostly what Barry said about the puzzle, but I must comment on how much time JzB spent creating this write up. Awesome!

unclefred said...

Nice, fun puzzle, challenging but not impossible. thanks David Poole! KUROSAWA was all perps for me, as usual, "I know nothing!" as Sgt Schultz used to say. Really overboard terrific write-up, a big Thank You JzB!! Hope the market recovers today, I'm sick and tired of getting poorer every day.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Got 'er done in better than normal Wednesday time. I even understood the theme. Yay, for the home team.

Owen, those first two were really cute.

Happy birthday, Montana!

kazie said...

What unclefred said. In addition, I had SSE for 61D so never did get the STRAW out completely, missing the last letter of Kurosawa as well, but it was a fun ride anyway.

HBTY, Montana! Have a great day!

Bluehen said...

What a great start to a hump day. A fun, doable puzzle with a little crunch. Thank you, David Poole. An excellent and entertaining expo from JazzBumpa. Thank you.
Some delightful limericks from OwenKL. Thank you. And Happy Birthday, Montana, and many happy returns.

Off to run errands,

Cya.

thehondohurricane said...


Happy Birthday Montana, have a good time doing something special.

Loved the theme clues and had NO issues with their presentation. My stalling points were the four and five letter fills.

BREN .. thought a z should have been part of it. SERT..doesn't sound like aSpanish name to me. OSSO..wanted Osse.

KUROSAWA..just diod not look right. ESTAS..tried Estad

But a happy result and some eraser was left.

Tinbeni said...

Montana, Happy Birthday!

Jazz: Thank You for explaining my Rorschach Ink Blot test.
If there was another answer to a clue ... I put it in ... in Black Ink.
Guess I'm the only one who for the clue at 57-d, No. 2 wrote in (with confidence) SH*T. lol

Other write-overs:
SIGNER before SIGNEE
OCTANE before LITRES

I SEE Erika (the Hurricane) is headed our way ... should be here by Sunday (or Monday).
Soooooo ... time to get prepared ...
1) Fill Gas Tank
2) Get Extra Cash
3) Purchase a Case-of-Beer and a few more Bottles-of-Scotch
4) A Bag of Frito's
5) And a "Small 7-UP"

Cheers!

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Happy Birthday, Montana. Drei Mal Hoch!

Argyle - Wish I could be at the Wash. Co. Fair today. Have a good time.

Good intro JzB. Thanks.

Didn't realize 69a was going to be a palindrome - OSSO. Had ossa at first, and couldn't make sense out of 59d. Issa. Then the light went on and IS SO agreed with the clue. and it was done. I like David's puzzles. This one seemed to have a slight British accent. No searches were needed.
23a - SCHLEP. The German word for tugboat is SCHLEPPER.

HowardW said...

Went smoothly -- only slips were STEN for BREN and SIGNER for SIGNEE. [Signee doesn't seem right for the Declaration of Independence. When Team A signs Player B for $X million, it makes sense to me that B is a signee, but when the object of the verb "sign" is an object, well...The dictionary disagrees with me though, and concurs with the constructor.]

Tinbeni, I thought (very!) briefly of your response to 57D, and also of VEEP.

Excellent discussion, JzB. Thanks for all the information!

Mr. Google said...

Irish Miss: "Public Morals" was reviewed on NPR's "Fresh Air" yesterday. You can hear it here.

Northwest Runner said...

And for those of you scoring at home...51D Alas, the term upset did not originate with Man o' War's loss to a horse of that name. (I swear a Jeopardy! episode made this assertion, possibly in Final.) The event made for a fitting example of the term, but it had been in use earlier.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Happy Birthday, Montana, hope you do something special.

I liked this puzzle a lot and thought the theme was very clever. W/o's were Eros/Amor and hora/reel. For the longest time, my brain was fixed on Saturday Night Live instead of Fever; maybe because of Oteri, so BeeGees took awhile to get filled in. Liked the long fill but fav was Meows, a CSO to our Mr. Meow! 🐈

Mr. Google @ 8:57 - Thank you for posting that review of Public Morals; it was spot on. The first episode was gritty and graphic with a no-holds barred focus on the corruption and lawlessness of the cops and the criminals. As the reviewer mentioned, the cast includes a lot of A List actors so, with continued strong story lines, it appears that Mr. Burns has struck gold. The blue language is quite prevalent but to be expected, given the setting and the characters.

Thank you, David Poole, for a mid-week treat and thanks, JazB, for the erudite and entertaining expo; you outdid yourself today!

Enjoy your bloomin' onion, Argyle!

American Pharoah arrives in Albany today for The Travers on Saturday. I believe he has Post Position 2 and the early line is 1-5.

Have a great day.

TTP said...

Good morning all.

After a restless night, I didn't have my A game. Didn't have my B game either. Got stumped. No fooling. I'm blaming it on the late night antihistamines.

Had SIGNET where SIGNEE belonged, and it kinda-sorta made sense in my fog-filled mind. Also entered AMA instead of ADA, but found that error. Ditto SERGEI / ANDREI. Anyone else try COMO USTED ? GEE, "How you ?" doesn't make a lot of sense.

Couldn't think of the "Saturday Night Live group" to save my soul - except for "The Not Ready for Prime Time Players" and there definitely wasn't enough room for that.

Yeah, it was that bad. I'm going to try to catch up on some of that sleep.

Thank you David Poole and thank you JzB ! And Happy Birthday Montana !

Misty said...

A perfect Wednesday puzzle, David--challenging but doable, and the theme was a lot of fun! And mixed in with all that were some impressive long ones, like CADILLACS and ACTUARIES. I really enjoyed it, as well as JazzB's brilliant expo. Everything explained so clearly and terrific pictures. And now I finally know what Cheri OTERI looks like after filling her name into dozens of puzzles.

Have a wonderful birthday, Montana, and have a great day, everybody.

Lucina said...

Hello, friends!

Happy birthday, Montana! Celebrate! Party!

How nice to be on the constructor's wave length, which I was and chuckled at every theme answer!

Josep Maria SERT was from Barcelona where they retain the Catalan language. It's quite different from Spanish and gave us some other artists such as Joan Miro and Antoni Gaudi, none of which are typical Spanish names but Catalan.

Thank you, David Poole for an amusing puzzle and thank you, JazzB, for a thorough review and some great links, especially the BEEGEES and Dionne Warwick.

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

coneyro said...

Very amusing theme.

After getting KIDGLOVES, I got where this was going, and the other related fills came easily.

Also had SIGNER/SIGNEE and EINE/EINS before perps to the rescue.

Don't know how I knew the word ACTUARIES, but I did. KUROSAWA, COLETTE, BREN helped by crosses.

Thanks for the review on "Public Morals". I taped it, and now am looking forward to it.

Loved the music links. The Four Seasons and the Bee Gees are two of my all time favs. I still say they don't make 'em like they used to. I miss American Bandstand., Shindig, and the other likeminded rock shows from the '60's.

SNL bares little resemblance, IMO, to the original. Some of its "humor" is crude and stupid. I guess I'm getting old.

CADILLAC El Dorado..They used to be magnificent cars before the smaller redesign. Loved those back fins.

Montana...Party hardy.

And that's my two cents for today.

Nice Cuppa said...

Yes, SIGNEE is an odd word. Once the SIGNER has SIGNED, (s)he becomes a SIGNEE, with its origin in Olde Frawnche, meaning "signed". SIGNEE is the appropriate dictionary word for someone who has signed an official document. Maybe the Frawnche gives it that "official" air. Maybe SIGNER sounds too ambiguous . We do have SIGNATORY, of course.

The "EE" ending is typically used for TRANSITIVE verbs (such as SIGN), but when pointing to the person who benefits from the action : e.g. addressee, grantee. It could be argued that the SIGNERS benefitted from their own actions, I suppose, but that is a long shot.

But it is also now used in INTRANSITIVE verbs, with an implied passive voice, for the person doing the act - so ESCAPEE (not ESCAPER), I suppose with the notion of "one who has escaped" and REFUGEE (not REFUGER) as "one who has sought refuge".

And now we have ATTENDEE (not ATTENDER), for no obvious reason.

Funny old language.

TTFN

Husker Gary said...

I could stare at the SE_T/B_EN blank cell until St. Swithun’s Day and never get it. I’ll take my Natick and admit I still had a good time, David and Jazz!

Musings
-In this Everly Brothers hit, there’s a spoken part where they accuse a girl of always PUTTIN’ ON AIRS (1:46)
-A two-move MATE
-Some GELATO stands we visited in Italy were not fussy about sanitation
-In a good golf swing, you should wind up on this TOE
-Some Ashley Madison clients ESPOUSED informal bigamy
-Mom loved Tommy Dorsey’s OPUS ONE
-ELIZ I reigned 44 yrs 127 days. ELIZ. II will make 63 yrs 217 days on Sept. 9 of this yr. surpassing Victoria as longest reigning English monarch
-SIGNEES didn’t start signing until a month after July 4, 1776
-SUB-TITLES ruin a movie for me but we use closed captioning for Downton
-OLD PRO collectibles
-HBD, Montana!
-TOTE dat barge, lift dat bale… Next Line?

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling Thoughts":

I had a DNF due to the Natick of SERT and BREN; I did an alphabet run for each and I guess even the "R" did not seem right to me . . .

WIMS, I, too had EROS before AMOR; was my only W-O

IM, this weekend's race at the Spa should be quite a battle of 3-yr-olds, now that some of the pre-season Derby favorites (last year's 2YO Champion, Texas Red) is in the field. Upstart, Frosted and Keen Ice are also formidable opponents. Should Amer Pharoah win it will certainly make the Breeder's Cup Classic a race for the ages.

I liked the overall theme of today's puzzle but was kind of surprised not to find a "reveal" clue/solve at the end. But a good Wednesday challenge; not too tough nor too easy . . . it had a good flow . . .

HB, Montana!

Tin, you really think that Erika will make it to Florida? Danny seemed to fizzle out and the paper this morning gives her (Erika) a less than 30% chance of developing. But nevertheless, I like your survival kit!

Tinbeni said...

Chairman Moe
As a Floridian I always say when it comes to Hurricanes (and Tropical Storms):
"It is better to be Safe Than Sorry."

And it always amazes me how many people don't prepare ... then when the storm hits say:
"Gee, I didn't know it was headed my way ..."

After-All they start telling you about these storms about a week or 10 days before they hit.

OTOH it is a beautiful sunny day here in Tarpon Springs heading for a wonderful Sunset.
Cheers!

Bluehen said...

Getta liddle drunk an' you land in jail . . . which has never happened to me, PTL.

I'm going to renew my driver's license tomorrow and was reviewing my birth certificate as part of the required documentation. Guess what, I was delivered by Dr. Carl Sandberg. What a coincidence. No wonder I'm so infatuated with the language.

Off to get dinner ready. Cuban sandwiches, bacon/ranch potato salad, sweet corn, and sliced heirloom tomato (Cherokee Purple).

Cya

Bronx Boy said...

Bluehen: In which state do you need a birth certificate in order to renew a drivers license?

Abejo said...

Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, David Poole, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Jazzbumpa, for a fine review.

A Most happy Birthday, Montana, and many more.

This one was a little tougher than normal, for me. Got through it but my paper looks like an inkblot.

Liked the theme, only I had RIDES HOGS for 25A. Eventually fixed that to RIDE BIKES.

Also had STEN for 26D, but BREN appeared with BIKES.

Had RIGHTS for 4D. SIGNEE appeared after a long time. Big inkblot.

Tried VEEP for 57D. Real big inkblot when I wrote in ASST.

Tried ALL PRO for 49D. OLD PRO won that battle. Another inkblot.

Thought I was doing great to get ACTUARIES.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Happy birthday, Montana! Swell picture!

Thanks, David and Jazz. Nice theme. Great expo.

Somewhat chewy. At first had SIGNEr. No cheats! Remembered SERT from previous puzzles.

Also looking forward to Public Morals.

What a season ender on The Whispers, which perhaps no one here watches except moi.

Happy hump day!

Jayce said...

Nifty puzzle. Excellent, detailed, informative, and humorous writeup.

I actually had R in at the crossing of BREN and SERT, but got no tada, so I thought it was wrong. It turns out I had EINE instead of EINS, which prevented the tada. I fixed that, but by then I had already taken out the R, so that became a Natick for me. I went through the alphabet and got the tada when I entered R in that space. Call me four-toed (nine-toed?) Jayce.

Ol' Man Keith said...

I screwed up and left 25A as RIDE SIDES, thinking it had something to do with sidecars... The possibility of STEN gun at 26D encouraged me in that. I just didn't know that SERT was a muralist.

Oh, well...

Avg Joe said...

Fell into the SigneR trap, but recovered. Managed to drag Sert and Bren out of the cobwebs when confronted, so that worked out. Clever theme, and lots of good fill.

Have a very happy B-Day, Montana!

Bluehen said...

BronxBoy, the great state of DE has dictated that in order to renew my federally compliant driver's license, I must present the same documentation as the first time. No explanation why, but the notice states that in the future, all I have to do to keep that kind of license is to show it at the next renewal cycle. No biggie, I still have the documentation from the first time. A minor pain.

Argyle said...

First, a Sten then a Bren.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

First, Happy Birthday Montana!

Got a little mixed up between Sten and Bren, neither being an item I'd know if it weren't for crosswords. Otherwise smooth sailing.

Nice fresh dry air outside!

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

1st - HBD Montana! Hope your day was bright and you PUT ON the ritz.

DNF / FIW for me... I left in the R from SIGNEr. I alsochanged ALA to oLA (the SSR Ga clued?), to get PouT - AuDREI looked good enough. LEST I mourn, it was a fun pzl while my computer did parts my job today. Thanks Mr. Pool. JzB - that writeup had to take >3 hrs. Thanks for the pics & tunes.

W/os - GELATo @1st. My biggest hang up was kidsBIKES. When I finally committed to KIDGLOVES I thought the blog was going to be abuzz and Rich sac'd (that would be the STRAW, no?). When BEEGEES finally boogied in my mind, I was ready to RIDE. Rich's job is safe! :-)

ESP - 26 & 39d. Wagged R for the former and for 45a (not a JIG???)

Fav - LITRES - British spellings never tyre :-)

unclefred - An OLD PRO said something akin to never sell into fear... it's time to bargain shop.

Tin / C. Moe - Yeah MATES, That's what I love about a hurricane - you get a week to get ready. Beats the heck out of tornadoes and earthquakes. I'm always stunned when folks TOTE water home from the store in preparation. For goodness SAKE, manciple water is still potable! Fill freezer bags (and put in freezer), fill pitchers (and put in fridge), and fill the bathtub for when you need to flush the commode after your beer is processed. At least that's the way I SEE it.

Owen - loved #3. Roses are red; violets are blue; most POEMS rhyme; but this one doesn't.

Cheers, -T

Bill G. said...

AnonT, I agree. I don't think I've ever bought a bottle of water if anything else was available. I think we might have a couple of plastic gallons on hand for when the BIG ONE strikes.

Anonymous T said...

I forgot to mention... Dr. 'Red' Duke passed today. I recall in HS we'd get his segment in Shreveport and think "someone's gonna let him operate?"

LEST you think he was a country bumpkin, think again. He's was a leading trauma surgeon and professor. (Cron.com)

RIP Dr. J 'Red' Duke. -T

aka thelma said...

Very late again... puzzle was a DNF for me.... but I enjoyed your write up JzB very much... :) as I always do...

Happy Birthday Montana... I do hope it was a great day and that you did something really fun...
I have a couple Montana related questions I would like to ask you, and have been meaning to ask you for sometime if you would mind emailing me... my grandfather's family had a homestead there and I believe it is still in the family..

Hope everyone's day was good....

thelma :)